Michael Arrington launching venture fund — America's most powerful tech blogger is taking a major step into the world of venture capital. — Michael Arrington, founder and co-editor of TechCrunch, is raising a venture capital fund to invest in early-stage technology companies, Fortune has learned.

Andrew Mason's Silicon Valley Problem: He's Not Here — Earlier this year at All Things D, Groupon CEO Andrew Mason said one of his regrets was not opening an office in Silicon Valley earlier. The implication was that he was talking about not taking advantage of the superior coding talent, but I took it another way.

Suspects in iPhone prototype case plead not guilty — REDWOOD CITY, Calif.—Two men pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor theft charges in a case involving an iPhone 4 prototype the pair are accused of selling to gadget blog Gizmodo last year. At an arraignment here this morning …

A note from @jack to Twitter developers — As Twitter developers, you are a fundamental part of our DNA. Thank you for your many contributions to the Twitter ecosystem. Our ongoing commitment is to give you the structure, tools, resources, and support you need to build your businesses as you leverage the power of Twitter.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 hands-on (video) — Samsung may have been talking up the Galaxy Note as the hottest new piece of hardware for this year's IFA, but it's the Galaxy Tab 7.7 that's got us really excited. The device is the latest entry in Samsung's popular Android-based Galaxy Tab line, and the thing is pretty darn slick.

A Parallels World Where Windows Zips on Macs — Apple's Macintosh computers have long been able to run Windows, in addition to their native operating system, Mac OS X. But the process has sometimes been clumsy, slow or taxing to the machine and it hasn't been tailored to the new Lion version of Apple's OS.

Oregon Dentists And Chiropractors Ban Groupons — Hoping to get a steal on your next filling or crown? — If you live in Oregon, you're sh*t out of luck. — The Oregon Board of Dentistry has banned the use of Groupons by the state's dentists because they run afoul of some “no commissions” rule.

Google touts daily deal on home page, a first — (Reuters) - Google Inc promoted a Groupon-like daily deals offer on its home page on Wednesday for the first time, a rare instance of the Internet giant using its prized online real estate for advertising. — The world's No.1 Web-search engine launched …

The #1 Predictor of Startup Failure: Premature Scaling — In the wake of Solyndra's revelation of an impending bankruptcy filing, the latest report from The Startup Genome Project makes for a timely read. — The report, published this week, crunches data from a set of more than 3,200 companies …

Lenovo U300s Ultraportable Laptop Revealed — This week the folks at Lenovo are revealing a handful of devices for those that love their computers to fly away at a gust of wind - first of all there's the “spectacularly slim” U300s Ultrabook, a luxury accessory as Lenovo puts it …